At ten o'clock I went to the Alexander Nevsky Monastery to attend the Requiem Mass for Anna Nikolayevna Yesipova on the ritually prescribed forty days after her death.* About thirty of us were present, many of her entourage to whom I am indifferent or actively hostile. The choir sung with refined artistry, but the music was very bad. An idea came to me of writing a Mass that would be severe, sad and passionate.